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What Chewed-Up Gum Reveals About Life in the Stone Age [DNA]
www.theatlantic.com ^ | Dec 14, 2018 | Sarah Zhang

Posted on 12/19/2018 1:49:47 PM PST by Red Badger

Chewed tar is an unexpectedly great source of ancient DNA.

No one today quite understands how they did it, but people in the Stone Age could turn ribbons of birch bark into sticky, black tar. They used this tar to make tools, fixing arrowheads onto arrows and blades onto axes. And they chewed it, as evidenced by teeth marks in some lumps.

These unassuming lumps of chewed birch-bark tar turn out to be an extraordinary source of ancient DNA. This month, two separate research groups posted preprints describing DNA from the tar in Stone Age Scandinavia. The two papers have not yet been peer reviewed, but they are already generating excitement about what they herald.

“It’s really amazing,” says Pontus Skoglund, an ancient-DNA researcher at Francis Crick Institute who was not involved with either study. Ancient DNA from human bones and teeth have recently revolutionized the study of the past, but many cultures over time did not bury their dead and left no remains to analyze. Chewing gum could fill in some of the gaps. It could also reveal a wealth of additional information, such as who helped make the Stone Age tools, what they ate, and what bacteria lived in their teeth.

The first new paper describes human DNA from three 10,000-year-old pieces of birch-bark tar, all found at a site called Huseby Klev in western Sweden. Having never extracted DNA from tar before, the team tried a protocol originally designed to extract DNA from feces—and it worked. Each piece of tar appears to have been chewed by just one person. In total, the tar pieces captured the DNA of two females and one male.

(Excerpt) Read more at theatlantic.com ...


TOPICS: Agriculture; Education; Food; History
KEYWORDS: anthropology; birch; birchbark; birchbarkpitch; birchbarktar; birchpitch; birchresin; birchtar; chewinggum; dietandcuisine; dna; ggg; godsgravesglyphs; gum; helixmakemineadouble; husebyklev; mesolithic; scandinavia; sweden
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To: PapaBear3625
pe’s hunter-gatherers then."

Or Troglodytes


21 posted on 12/19/2018 2:52:10 PM PST by freedumb2003 (As always IMHO)
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To: Little Bill

R1a haplogroup here.


22 posted on 12/19/2018 3:04:49 PM PST by miliantnutcase
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To: Red Badger

“the tar pieces captured the DNA of two females and one male”

What? DNA doesn’t determine gender. These scientists need to go to reeducation camp.


23 posted on 12/19/2018 3:20:40 PM PST by ifinnegan (Democrats kill babies and harvest their organs to sell)
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To: Red Badger

Did you bring enough for everybody?


24 posted on 12/19/2018 3:24:54 PM PST by wally_bert (We're low on dimes in fun city.)
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To: GrandJediMasterYoda

So she looked sort of like a Siamese cat...


25 posted on 12/19/2018 4:47:10 PM PST by piasa (Attitude adjustments offered here free of charge.)
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To: yarddog

Yeah - and the ancients used to store wine in lead containers because it made the wine taste sweeter...while making the drinkers insane....can’t imagine turpentine residue being good for one.


26 posted on 12/20/2018 3:29:34 AM PST by trebb (Those who don't donate anything tend to be empty gasbags...no-value-added types)
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To: GrandJediMasterYoda
I don't don't know if they're related but recently they dod a reconstruction of a 9000-year-old skull of a young girl found in Greece. She has the dark hair and skin mentioned here but has dark eyes. To me she looks like a possible daughter of Dwayne Johnson and Sigourney Weaver.

27 posted on 12/20/2018 11:46:31 AM PST by jmcenanly ("The more corrupt the state, the more laws." Tacitus, Publius Cornelius)
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To: fieldmarshaldj; a fool in paradise; Red Badger; StayAt HomeMother; Ernest_at_the_Beach; ...
Thanks for the pings and for posting this, I've been unable to devote time to FR of late. Some ABC gum from the Neolithic, sounds delicious. Probably the reason its qualities got discovered was the flavor? Or perhaps medicinal or other qualities?

28 posted on 12/20/2018 12:29:45 PM PST by SunkenCiv (and btw -- https://www.gofundme.com/for-rotator-cuff-repair-surgery)
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To: SunkenCiv

It was Mastodon Flavor.......................


29 posted on 12/20/2018 12:31:14 PM PST by Red Badger (We are headed for a Civil War. It won't be nice like the last one....................)
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To: SunkenCiv

Does your chewing tar lose its flavor on your axe handle overnight?


30 posted on 12/20/2018 8:44:51 PM PST by a fool in paradise (Denounce DUAC - The Democrats Un-American Activists Committtee)
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